Review/Music; Norrington's Schumann: Toward Authenticity

By EDWARD ROTHSTEIN

Published: November 3, 1991

A few years ago, Roger Norrington set an ambitious project for himself: to bring the "authenticity" movement into the 19th century. In recordings and interviews, he argued that while errors in Renaissance and Baroque performance practice have been corrected, the Classical and Romantic repertory is also in need of repair. In the view of the conductor (and others of like mind), the music at the very heart of concert life needed to be cleansed of accumulated debris, lethargic tempi and bombastic manners.

The polemics, though, were noticeably absent when Mr. Norrington conducted the Orchestra of St. Luke's at Avery Fisher Hall on Friday night. The only sign of principle was in a parenthetical remark in the program notes that the all-Schumann program would be played with a Schumann-sized orchestra , and that strings would use very little vibrato -- an approach now shared by many orchestras. There were no radical revisions of tempo or interpretation, no arguments that Schumann's Cello Concerto and his Third Symphony have, until Friday, been distorted.

Perhaps this was because the orchestra is not formed around a musical ideology, as is Mr. Norrington's other ensemble, the London Classical Players. Perhaps, too, it was because Mr. Norrington, St. Luke's music director, no longer needs to justify his approach, which has become familiar through his many recordings. But it has also become clear that Mr. Norrington's style is thoroughly contemporary and must justify itself on its own merits: It is plain-spoken, almost positivistic; it resists any hint of mystery or awe or heart-on-sleeve confession; its favorite mode is quick-stepping dance; its least favorite attitude is reflective solemnity.

This was certainly how Schumann sounded on Friday. The Overture to "Genoveva," the composer's ill-fated and ill-planned opera, did exhibit some mournful energy, but generally there was more verve than shadow in the playing. That verve was, at times, infectious. When the horn calls broke the texture of the first movement of the Third Symphony, there was a genuine excitement in the contrasts and syncopated rhythms; the second movement became a charming series of variations on a rustic landler; the finale was often spritely. The symphony, in fact, was well suited to Mr. Norrington's style; it is Schumann's "Pastorale," a joyful vision of the Rhine and its countryside, written in 1850 and dubbed the "Rhenish."

But just a few years after its composition, the composer tried to drown himself in that same river. And with Schumann, even moments of celebration contain unspoken mysteries. Finding this symphony's shadows would mean being less literal about the music and more attentive to its allusions. Despite his sensitivity to dance, for example, Mr. Norrington tended to emphasize too many downbeats, breaking lines with blunt accents. It was as if Mr. Norrington was so intent on the musical "facts" that other considerations were not permitted to interfere. Nearly everything was too much on the surface.

This was true of the Cello Concerto as well, although I am not sure it is possible to go very far below this work's surface. Steven Isserlis's playing was accomplished and forceful, but he never seemed to be saying much worth attending to.

Mr. Norrington is too careful and clear to fall into mere recitation, but his practicality and directness are a matter of temperament rather than authenticity. Schumann is almost never practical and rarely direct. His approach may be episodic, but only because something is promised in the accumulation of episodes that is beyond plain speech.

By declining to become involved in this aspect of the repertory, Mr. Norrington provided an amiable evening, some moments of excitement, a few admirably executed episodes -- but little that authentically resembled Schumann's Romanticism.

Photo: Roger Norrington conducted the Orchestra of St. Luke's in an all-Schumann program on Friday night at Avery Fisher Hall. (Walter H. Scott)